# Luke — The Age of Reason character guide

> Luke in The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** St. Luke

**First appearance:** 0009-part-i-viii-of-the-new-testament

## Snapshot

The evangelist whose forty-three-generation genealogy and differing account of Judas give Paine his cleanest proof that the gospels cannot both be inspired.

## Who they are

Luke is the other half of Paine's contradiction: where Matthew runs twenty-eight generations from David to Christ, Luke runs forty-three, and only David and Joseph appear in both lists. Paine notes that Luke's gospel speaks as if Christ never left Judea, directly conflicting with Matthew's flight into Egypt, and that Luke's version of Judas — keeping the money and buying a field for himself — cannot coexist with Matthew's version of a remorseful Judas returning the silver. Luke matters because he turns Paine's abstract claim about inspiration into a concrete, checkable failure: two books credited to the same Spirit cannot disagree on the facts.

## In the story

### [II: The New Testament](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_age_of_reason_se/chapters/part-ii-ii-the-new-testament)

Attributed author of a Gospel; Paine notes Luke's genealogy contradicts Matthew's, undermining the Gospel's credibility.

### [The Book of Luke](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_age_of_reason_se/chapters/part-iii-the-book-of-luke)

Author of the Gospel of Luke and Acts, whose narratives are examined for contradictions.

### [The Book of John](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_age_of_reason_se/chapters/part-iii-the-book-of-john)

Mentioned as the source for the claim that Christ was thirty years old before beginning his mission.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_age_of_reason_se/characters/luke
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_age_of_reason_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_age_of_reason_se/characters